BATESVILLE (AP) — A 7-month-old Arkansas girl will spend her first Christmas far from her Springdale home because she needs a life-saving operation.

The Batesville Daily Guard reported that Aubree Elise Shaw is to undergo surgery in early January for a rare condition that prevents the rib cage from growing at a normal rate. Her lungs function normally but, without surgery, there’s no room for them to grow.

Aubree is at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where her parents, Derrick and Audra Shaw, met a family with a little boy with the same condition, which is known as Juenes Syndrome.

Aubree’s parents said they hope the surgery will enable her to have many more Christmases, all of them at home.